khiemtran | On the rails...

How to photograph a shinkansen...

Even when around stations, these things move fast. Luckily though, they also seem to always have a nose at each end. This is actually the rear end of one leaving Kyoto station.

Photography from the inside of a moving shikansen is a nearly pointless exercise. The scenery moves so fast, what you see when you press the button often has very little relationship to what you finally get on the CCD.

On the other hand, there's something intrinsic relaxing about sitting on a high speed train at dusk, watching the scenery fly by. Especially if you have a window seat. Flying past rice fields and houses, with the mountains rising against the darkening sky. It's almost like being injected into a landscape painting, instead of merely being stuck outside.

An interior shot from the journey to Kyoto. The purse on the table belonged to a lady who got up to go to the toilet at the front of the carriage. There didn't seem to be any question that leaving it behind wasn't a safe thing to do (it took me a while to get used to the idea of just leaving my suitcase at the back of the carriage, but it was always there when I got off again). It might be tempting to think the lady was using her purse as a means to mind her seat, but this carriage was reserved seating anyway, so she probably left it behind merely to save having to carry it. Of course, I guess if someone did steal it, there would still be question of how the thief would get off the train...